“I did it because I thought we needed a sound debate on this. If we had not passed this motion to proceed — and that is to debate it, talk about it, offer amendments — we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to provide those alternatives,” Coats said on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown” on Wednesday.

The Indiana Republican said he was stepping up to comments from the president urging Republicans to present ideas, blaming Reid for holding those suggestions back and accusing him of wanting the vote to fail.

“Harry Reid as majority leader of the Senate is not allowing us to bring those ideas forward. He was hoping that this would fail yesterday, then just blame Republicans for being heartless and cruel,” Coats said. “What I wanted to do and what Sen. [Kelly] Ayotte, Sen. [Rob] Portman and the six of us wanted to do was get to the point where we could go down on the floor, offer alternatives and put it before the American people.”

Coats was one of six Republicans on Tuesday who joined with Democrats in voting to open debate on a bill to extend unemployment benefits that expired in December for three months. The vote was a surprise, as before the roll call many thought Democrats were one Republican short of the five they needed to reach the 60-vote threshold.

On Wednesday, Coats said the key to him supporting the bill for passage, ultimately, will be finding a way to pay for it. He countered Reid’s assertion that there are no easy places to find the money left.

“There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit,” Coats said. “Here’s one that is just a no-brainer. Look, in order to get Social Security disability payments, you have to prove that you are unable to work. In order to get unemployment benefits, you have to prove you are able to work. We know that many, many people are getting checks for both.”